Biographies of Aerospace Officials

and Policymakers, K-N

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Nikolay Petrovich Kamanin (1909-1982) was the Deputy Chief of General Staff from 1958-1966 and then Aide to Air Force Commander from 1966-1971.  Kamanin oversaw all cosmonaut training.  (Provided by Asif Siddiqi)

Robert W. Kamm (1917- ) graduated from New York University in 1939 with a bachelors degree in aeronautical engineering and joined the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, where he investigated spin characteristics of various military aircraft in wind tunnels. In 1946 he left the NACA to become senior aerodynamicist with the Glenn L. Martin Company. In 1950 he went to work for the Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center, where he became chief of the plans and policy office in 1957. In 1959 he accepted an appointment as director of NASA's western operations office in Santa Monica, responsible for contract negotiations and administration, public information, technical representation, financial management, security, legal and patent administration. In 1968 he retired from that position and NASA to become assistant to the director of the Space Institute at the University of Tennessee, Tullahoma.

Arthur Kantrowitz (1913- ) earned his Ph.D. in physics from Columbia in 1947 after having worked as a physicist for the NACA from 1936 to 1946. He taught at Cornell for the next decade, meanwhile founding the Avco-Everett Research Lab in Everett, Massachusetts, in 1955. He served as its director, senior executive officer, and chairman until 1978 when he became a professor at Dartmouth. From 1956 to 1978 he also served as a vice president and director of Avco Corporation.

Joseph Kaplan (1902-1991) was born in Tapolcza, Hungary, and came to the U.S. in 1910. He trained as a physicist at the Johns Hopkins University and worked on the faculty of the University of California-Berkeley from 1928 until his retirement in 1970. He directed the university's Institute of Geophysics, later the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, from the time of its creation in 1944. Kaplan was heavily involved in efforts in the 1950s to launch the first artificial Earth satellite, serving as the chair of the U.S. National Committee for the International Geophysical Year, 1953-1963.  (See "Kaplan, Joseph" biographical folder, NASA Historical Reference Collection; Joseph Kaplan, "The Aeronomy Story: A Memoir," in R. Cargill Hall, ed., Essays on the History of Rocketry and Astronautics: Proceedings of the Third Through the Sixth History Symposia of the International Academy of Astronautics (Washington, DC: NASA Conference Publication 2014, 1977), 2: 423-27; Joseph Kaplan, "The IGY Program," Proceedings of the IRE, June 1956, pp. 741-43.)

Frederick R. Kappel was the chairman of the board of directors of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1963. "Miscellaneous Industry," Biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, Washington, DC.

Andrey Grigoryevich Karas (1918-1979) was the first Commander of GUKOS (Military Space Forces) from 1964-1979.  (Provided by Asif Siddiqi)

Theodore von Karman (1881-1963) was a Hungarian aerodynamicist who founded an Aeronautical Institute at Aachen before World War I and made a world-class reputation in aeronautics through the 1920s. In 1930 Robert A. Millikan and his associates at the California Institute of Technology lured von Kármán from Aachen to become the director of the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at Caltech (GALCIT). There he trained a generation of engineers in theoretical aerodynamics and fluid dynamics. With its eminence in physics, physical chemistry, and astrophysics as well as aeronautics, it proved to be an almost ideal site for the early development of U.S. ballistic rocketry. See Judith R. Goodstein, Millikan's School: A History of California Institute of Technology (New York: W.W. Norton, 1991); Clayton R. Koppes, JPL and the American Space Program: A History of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982); Michael H. Gorn, The Universal Man: Theodore von Kármán's Life in Aeronautics (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992).

Joseph E. Karth (1922- ) (Democrat-Farmer-Labor-MN) was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1958 and served through the mid-1970s.

Amron Harry Katz (1915- ) was a physicist who worked with the Rand Corp, Santa Monica, California, between 1954 and 1969. He was a specialist aerospace reconnaissance.

Nicholas Katzenbach (1922- ) was twenty-one when he was captured by the Germans during World War II, and was a prisoner of war for two years until the war ended. He returned to the states and became a Rhodes Scholar in 1947. When he returned from England in 1950, he was admitted to the New Jersey bar. He became a law professor at Yale University in 1952 and then at the University of Chicago from 1956 until 1960. He joined the Justice Department in 1961 as assistant attorney general, and was promoted to deputy attorney general in 1962. He remained in that position until the end of 1964 and was instrumental in drafting the Civil Rights Act of that same year. He became attorney general in 1965 and undersecretary of state in 1966. He left government service to work for IBM in 1969, where he stayed until 1986. He returned to private practice and was named chairman of the failing Bank Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in 1991. See ìKatzenbach, Nicholas (de Belleville)î in John S. Bowman, ed., The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography (Cambridge, England: The Cambridge University Press, 1995).

William C. Keathley came to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in 1966. He served as the project manager for the Apollo Telescope Mount experiments that were flown on Skylab and as chief of the Skylab Optical Telescope Assembly project. In 1977 he was named manager of the Space Telescope Project (later named the Hubble Space Telescope). Marshall Star, March 16, 1977, p.4 from the Marshall Space Flight Center History Office, Huntsville, AL.

Kenneth B. Keating (1900-1975) (R-NY) was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and served there through 1958. Elected to the Senate the latter year, he served through 1965 and then became an associate justice in the New York Court of Appeals for three years before becoming ambassador to India in 1969.

William B. Keese (1910- ) was a career Air Force officer who became a major general in 1960 and was the director of developmental planning at Headquarters, U.S. Air Force from 1960- 1962.

Estes Kefauver (1903-1963) was a Democrat from Tennessee who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1939-1949 and in the U.S. Senate from 1949-1963. He ran unsuccessfully as Adlai Stevenson's Vice Presidential choice in 1956. See Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1989, (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989).

Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh (1911-1978) was Director of NII-1 from 1946-1955, Chief of IPM from 1953-1978, and President of Academy of Sciences from 1961-1975.  He was a highly influential mathematician who led work on many different missiles and spacecraft.  (Provided by Asif Siddiqi)

Robert F. Keller (1913-1980) had worked for the General Accounting Office from 1935-42 and 1946-69. He became general counsel in 1958. In 1969 he becamecontroller general of the U.S.

W. W. Kellogg (1917 -  ) was a meteorologist with the Rand Corporation between 1947 and 1959.  He has held a senior position with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, since 1959.  See Who’s Who in America, 2000 Edition New Providence, NJ:  Marquis Who’s Who, 1999.

Mervin J. Kelly (1894-1971) was a longtime research physicist with Bell Telephone Laboratories, becoming director of research in 1934, vice president in 1944, and president of the organization between 1951 and 1959. His work at the laboratories focused on radar, gunfire control, and bombsights. After his retirement from Bell, Kelly was named advisor to NASA Administrator James E. Webb in 1961. (Obituary, _New York News Herald_, 20 March 1971, p. 32.)

David W. Kendall (1903-1976) served as special counsel to the president from 1958-1961. He had previously been general counsel of the U.S. Treasury, 1954-1955 and then assistant secretary of the Treasury, 1955-57.

Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy (1932- ) has been a longtime Democratic member of the Senate from Massachusetts who was first elected in 1962.

Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968) was attorney general during the administration of his brother, John F. Kennedy, and a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1968 before his assassination. He was involved in the 1961 decision to go to the Moon as a senior advisor in the Kennedy administration. On his career see Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Robert Kennedy and His Times (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978).

John F. Kennedy (1916-1963) was President of the United States, 1961-1963.  In 1960 John F. Kennedy, a Senator from Massachusetts between 1953 and 1960, ran for president as the Democratic candidate with  Lyndon B. Johnson as his running mate.  Using the slogan, "Let's get this country moving again," Kennedy charged the Republican Eisenhower Administration with doing nothing about the myriad social, economic, and international problems that festered in the 1950s.  He was especially hard on Eisenhower's record in international relations, taking a Cold Warrior position on a supposed "missile gap" (which turned out not to be the case) wherein the United States lagged far behind the Soviet Union in ICBM technology.  On 25 May, 1961, President Kennedy announced to the nation a goal of sending an American to the Moon before the end of the decade.  The human spaceflight imperative was a direct outgrowth of it; Projects Mercury (at least in its latter stages), Gemini, and Apollo were each designed to execute it.  On this subject see, Walter A. McDougall, . . . The Heavens and the Earth:  A Political History of the Space Age (New York:  Basic Books, 1985); John M. Logsdon, The Decision to Go to the Moon:  Project Apollo and the National Interest (Cambridge, MA:  MIT Press, 1970).

Charles F. Kennel (1939 -  ) earned an A.B. from Harvard College in 1959 and a Ph.D. in astrophysical sciences from Princeton University in 1964.  Before coming to NASA, Dr. Kennel was a tenured member of the University of California, Los Angeles, department of physics since 1967.  He served as NASA associate administrator for Mission to Planet Earth from 1993-1996.  In 1998 Dr. Kennel was appointed to the NASA Advisory Council (NAC).  In 2001, he became chair of the NAC.  See “Kennel, Charles,” biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Johann Kepler (1571-1630), a young German astronomer, began work with Tycho Brahe in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1599. When Brahe died in 1601, Kepler inherited his position and continued his observations as a method of mathematically solidifying the Copernican view of the universe. There, he developed his three laws of planetary motion. He also was interested in cosmology and dabbled in astrology. His last book, Somnium, was completed shortly before his death and related a fantastic story of space travel that was memorable for its exposition of the Copernican model to explain planetary motion. (Owen Gingerich, "Johnnes Kepler," Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970), 7:289-90.)

Kerim Aliyevich Kerimov (1917-2003) worked in the Military Space Forces and then the Ministry of General Machine Building. Kerimov served as Chairman for the State Commission for almost all piloted space missions from 1966-1991.  (Provided by Asif Siddiqi)

Robert S. Kerr (1896-1963) (D-OK) had been governor of Oklahoma from 1943-1947 and was elected to the Senate the following year. From 1961 until 1963 he chaired the Aeronautical and Space Sciences Committee. See Anne Hodges Morgan, Robert S. Kerr: The Senate Years (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977).

Seymour S. Kety (1915- ) was a physician who worked with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) throughout the 1950s. In 1951 he became associate director in charge of research for NIMH and for neurological diseases and blindness, and in 1956 he moved to the directorship of the Laboratory of Clinical Sciences. In 1959 Kety was the chair of NASA's bioscience advisory committee. In 1967 he left NIMH and became a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, where he assumed emeritus status in 1983. (See esp. "Seymour S.Kety" biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.)

David Keyser (1918- ) became chief congressional liaison officer for NASA in 1959. He had worked from 1951-1955 as administrative assistant to Congressman Charles J. Kersten of Wisconsin. Just before his NASA appointment, he had worked as a municipal consultant to various city governments.

George A. Keyworth II (1939 -  ) was director of the office of Science and Technology Policy as science advisor to President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1986.  Formerly the head of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Keyworth earned his Ph.D. in nuclear physics from Duke University in 1968.  He began work at Los Alamos after graduation and remained there until 1981.  See "Keyworth, George Albert, 2d," 1986 Current Biography Yearbook, pp. 265-68.

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (1894-1971) was First Secretary of Central Committee from 1953-1964 during the early space era.  Khrushchev also chaired the Council of Ministers from 1958-1964.  (Provided by Asif Siddiqi)

Sergey Nikitich Khrushchev(1934- ) was Deputy Department Chief from 1958-1968 at OKB-52 (Chelomey) and is the son of Nikita Khrushchev. He specialized in control systems.  (Provided by Asif Siddiqi)

James R. Killian (1904-1988) was president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology between 1949 and 1959, on leave between November 1957 and July 1959 when he served as the first presidential science advisor.  President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC), which Killian chaired, following the Sputnik crisis.  After leaving the White House staff in 1959, Killian continued his work at MIT but in 1965 began working with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to develop public television.  Killian described his experiences as a presidential advisor in Sputnik, Scientists, and Eisenhower: A Memoir of the First Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (Cambridge, MA:  MIT Press, 1977).  For a discussion of the PSAC see Gregg Herken, Cardinal Choices: Science Advice to the President from Hiroshima to SDI (New York:  Oxford University Press, 1992).

David S. King (1917- ) (D-UT) was elected to the House of Representatives in 1958 and served through 1962. He was reelected in 1964 for one term and then became an ambassador to the Malagasy Republic.

V.A. Kirillin (1913- ), was Deputy Chairmen of the Council of Ministers and Chairman of the State Committee for Science and Technology for the Soviet Union in the 1960s. Educated as a physicist, he worked in thermodynamics and became chair in 1965, serving until stripped of his position in 1980 after the ascension of Leonid Brezhnev as head of the Soviet Union. See "Biography, Soviet, Miscellaneous (K-O)," NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Jeane J. Kirkpatrick (1926- ) was United States Permanent Representative to the UnitedNations.

Henry A. Kissinger (1923- ) was assistant to the president for National Security Affairs, 1969-1973, and secretary of state thereafter until 1977. In these positions, he was especially involved in international aspects of spaceflight, particularly the joint Soviet/American flight, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, in 1975. See "Kissinger, Henry," Biographical File, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

George Kistiakowsky (1900-1982) was a pioneering chemist at Harvard University, associated with the development of the atomic bomb, and later an advocate of banning nuclear weapons.  He served as science advisor to President Eisenhower from July 1959 to the end of the Eisenhower administration.  He later served on the advisory board to the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency from 1962 to 1969.  See New York Times, December 9, 1982, p. B21 and "George B. Kistiakowsky," biographical file 001200, NASA Historical Reference Collection, History Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Kenneth S. Kleinknecht started his career in 1942 at the Lewis Research Center after graduating from Perdue University with a B.S. in mechanical engineering. In 1951, Kleinknecht transferred to the Flight Research Center in Edwards, CA. After NASA formed, he then transferred to the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston in 1959. Before being named the manager of the Mercury project, Kleinknecht was active in the National Air Races, served as supervisor for a number of avionics tests at Lewis, and was the Head of the Project Engineering Station for the X-1E. Additionally, Kleinknecht served as the Advanced Projects Management Officer on the X-15 project and as the Technical Assistant to the Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center. Source: "Kenneth Kleinknecht" biographical file 001205, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Joseph J. Knopow was a young Lockheed engineer who helped develop an infrared radiometer and telescope to detect the hot exhaust gases emitted by long-range jet bombers and, more important, large rockets in the mid-1950s. This aircraft-tracker and missile-detection system became a standard method of targeting enemy air and spacecraft.

William F. Knowland (1908-1974) (R-CA) served in the Senate between 1945 and 1959. (Washington Post, October 5, 1959, p. C3; Guide to Research Collections of Former United States Senators, 1789-1982 [Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1983], p. 291).

Yuri N. Koptev (1940- ) became General Director of the Russian Space Agency. Trained as an engineer, he began work in 1965 at NPO S.A. Lavochkina, as head o the organization for spacecraft design. Beginning in 1969 he served in administration and eventually was appointed as senior engineer to the Deputy Minister at the design bureau. See "Koptev, Yuri N.," biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. (1924 -   ) was a long-standing official with NASA throughout the Apollo program.  He received as B.S. in aeronautical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1944 and joined the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) the next year.  In 1958, still at Langley, he became a member of the Space Task Group developing Project Mercury and moved with the Group to Houston in 1962.  He was flight director for all of the Mercury and many of the Gemini missions and directed the design of Mission Control at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), redesignated the Johnson Space Center in 1973.  He was named the MSC deputy director in 1970 and its director two years later, a position he held until his retirement in 1982.  Since then he has remained active as an aerospace consultant.  See "Kraft, Christopher C., Jr.," biographical file 001237, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Ernst Henry Krause (1913- )  After earning his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Krause served as the Associate Director of Research at the Naval Research Lab from 1938-1954.  After leaving this post, he was the Director of Research Labs, Missile Systems Division at Lockheed Aircraft Corporation until 1955.  He then became a member of the Board of Directors of Aeronutronic Systems Inc. from 1956 to 1960.  He was Director of Technical Staff for the Aeronutronic Division of Ford Motor Company until 1962.  After leaving Ford, he was the Vice President of Aerospace Corporation.  Dr. Krause was a member of the Science Advisory Board in Redlands, CA and earned a Distinguished Civilian Service Award from the United States Navy.  (Who’s Who in Science from Antiquity to Present; Marquis Who’s Who Inc.  Allen G. Debus, 1968.) 

Robert L. Krieger (1916-1990) began his career with the NACA and NASA at the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory in 1936 as a laboratory apprentice. Leaving the NACA for college, he earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech in 1943 and returned to Langley. From there, he was part of the group that set up the Pilotless Aircraft Research Station at Wallops Island under Robert R. Gilruth in 1945. In 1948 he became the head of the Wallops facility, which performed aerodynamic tests on instrumented models propelled at high speeds. In 1958 Wallops became an independent field center of NASA; there, Krieger led the first successful test flight of the Mercury capsule. During his career there, Wallops launched thousands of test vehicles, including 19 satellites. He retired as director in 1981. ("Robert L. Krieger," biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

Sergey Pavlovich Korolev (1907-1966) was Chief Designer in 1946-1966 at OKB-1 and founding figure of the Soviet space program.  His early prewar rocketry work was at GIRD and NII-3.  (Provided by Asif Siddiqi)

Joachin P. Kuettner (1909 -   ) served as Chief of the Mercury-Redstone project at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.  Born and raised in Germany, he earned a doctorate in law from the University of Breslau at the age of 21 and a doctorate in physics and meteorology from the University of Hamburg in 1939.  During World War II, Dr. Kuettner served as a test pilot and later as the head of a flight test department for advanced airplanes such as the piloted version of the German V-1.  He came to the United States in December 1948 and joined the Air Force Cambridge Research Center.  Here he was in charge of geophysical flight research using jet aircraft and high-altitude sailplanes.  He then worked for the Army Ballistic Missile Agency as Director of the Agency’s efforts in Project Mercury from 1958 until he transferred to NASA and Marshall Space Flight Center two years later.  After Mercury-Redstone, he was put in charge of the Saturn-Apollo Systems Integration at Marshall.  Over his long career, Dr. Kuettner published many papers in the fields of aeronautics, meteorology astronautics and holds numerous awards from several different countries.

Mukul Ranjan Kundu (1930 -   ) is a scholar of solar and stellar radio physics and supernova remnants.  He received his B.S., with honors, from the University of Paris.  He is a member of the editorial board of Solar Physics, received the 1978 U.S. Senior Scientist Award from the Humbolt Foundation, was the 1989 American Physics Society Fellow, is a member of the American Astronomical Society, the American Geophysical Union, and the International Astronomical Union of Radio Science.  A physics and astronomy educator, he is a professor at the University of Maryland, College Park.  The author of Solar Radio Astronomy, 1965, he was named the National Academy of Sciences Fellow in 1967, 1974, 1975, and 1986.  In 1976, he participated in the National Academy of Sciences “Solar Physics Study.”  See “Kundu, Mukul Ranjan” in Who’s Who in America, 2000, 54th Ed. New Providence, NJ:  Marquis Who’s Who, 1999.

James Edward Kupperian, Jr.,  (1925-1984) earned his bachelor’s degree in naval architecture, from the Webb Institute; his master’s degree from the University of Delaware, and his doctorate in physics from the University of North Carolina.  He was a physicist with the Naval Research Laboratory before joining NASA in 1959.   From 1959 to 1970 he was chief of the astrophysics branch at Goddard Space Flight Center.  At Goddard he conceived and planned the observatory series of spacecraft, including the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO).  He was the project scientist for the OAO.  See “Kupperuan, James Edward Jr.” in Who’s Who in America, 1980-1981, 41st Ed. New Providence, NJ:  Marquis Who’s Who, 1980.

Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov (1903-1960) led work on the first Soviet atomic and thermonuclear weapons at KB-11, and coordinated work with Korolev’s OKB-1.  (Provided by Asif Siddiqi)

Hermann H. Kurzweg (1908- ) was born in Germany and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Leipzig in 1933. During the Second World War, he was chief of the research division and deputy director of the aerodynamic laboratories at Peenemnde, where he did aerodynamic research on the V-2 rocket and the antiaircraft rocket Wasserfall as well as participated in the design of the supersonic wind tunnels there. In 1946 he came to the U.S. and worked for the Naval Ordnance Laboratory at White Oak, Maryland, doing aerodynamics and aeroballistics research and becoming associate technical director of the lab in 1956. He joined NASA Headquarters in September 1960 as assistant director for aerodynamics and flight mechanics in the office of advanced research programs. In 1961 he became director of research in the office of advanced research and technology. Nine years later, he was appointed chief scientist and chairman of the research council in the same office. He retired in 1974. ("Hermann H. Kurzweg," biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.)

Nikolay Fedorovich Kuznetsov (1916-2000) was Director of the Cosmonaut Training Center from 1963-1972 during the Voshkod and Soyuz programs.  (Provided by Asif Siddiqi)

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Robert J. Lacklen had joined the NACA in 1945 as classification and organization officer. He became head of the NACA personnel administration two years later. When NASA succeeded the NACA, he became director of the personnel division, a position he held until 1964, when he resigned to become head of a personnel research institute at the Richardson Foundation in Greensboro, North Carolina. ("Robert J. Lacklen," biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.)

Melvin Laird (1922- ) was Secretary of Defense during the Nixon Administration.

Edwin Land was president of the Polaroid Corporation, and a member of the Purcell Panel that assessed space flight capabilities for the U.S. government in 1957-1958.

Richard E. Lankford (1914- ) (D-MD) was elected as a representative of Maryland's fifth district in Congress in 1954, a seat he retained through 1964.

Thomas G. Lanphier, Jr. (1915- ) was a special assistant to the secretary of the Air Force, 1949-1950, and became vice president of Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corp., 1951-1960; then president of Fairbanks, Morse, and Co, 1960-1962; before becoming vice president for corporate planning of Raytheon in 1962.

Louis John Lanzerotti (1938 -   ) physicist, received his B.S. from the University of Illinois, 1960; and his M.A., 1963, and his Ph.D., 1965, from Harvard University.   A postdoctoral fellow with Lucent Technologies Bell Labs, he also served as a member of the technical staff of AT&T Bell Labs.  His professional experiences include: member, Polar Research Board, National Research Council (NRC), 1982 to 1991; chairman,  NRC’s Space Studies Board, 1988 to1994; member, Ocean Studies Board, 1995 to 1999; member, NASA Physical Science Committee, 1975 to 1979; chairman, Space and Earth Advisory Committee; member, Advisory Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program, 1990; member, Vice President’s Space Policy Advisory Board, 1992 to 1993.  He coauthored Diffusion in Radiation Belts, and co-edited two books on space physics.  He is the recipient of the Antarctic Service Medal, 1979, and NASA’s Distinguished Public Service Award, 1988 and 1994.  He is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Institute of Electrical Electronics Engineers, the American Physics Society, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the International Academy of Astronautics, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.  See “Lanzerotti, Louis John” in Who’s Who in America, 2000, 54th Ed. New Providence, NJ:  Marquis Who’s Who, 1999.

Harold Lasswell (1902-1978) was a political scientist at Yale University. He was especially interested in pubic opinion polling, the uses of propaganda, and the democratic political process.

Harold R. Lawrence was assistant director of NASA's Office of International Programs. He resigned in 1960 to take a job at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. See correspondence files of T. Keith Glennan, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

James S. Lay, Jr., (1911-1987) was a senior official in the National Security Council, first as assistant executive secretary, 1947-1950, and then as executive secretary, 1950-1961. He then served as deputy assistant to the director of Central Intelligence, 1961-1964, and the executive secretary of the Intelligence Board through 1971.

Ludwig George Lederer (1911-1978) was a specialist in internal and aviation medicine. He was medical director for Capital Airlines from 1942-1960 and was simultaneously medical examiner and physician in chief of the Washington National Airport. In 1960 he became medical director for American Airlines. At about this time he was president of the aerospace medical association.

Tom Lehrer (1928- ) was a satirist who wrote and recorded several folk songs in the 1960s that made light of current events. His last album, That Was the Year That Was (1965), contained the satirical song, "Wernher von Braun," dealing with the relationship of science to ethics. See "Lehrer, Tom," 1982 Current Biography, pp. 227-30.

Cecil Eldon Leith, Jr.,  (1923 -   ) is a physicist by education and career.  He earned his A.B., in 1943, and his Ph.D., in 1957, at the University of California, Berkeley. He started his career in 1946 as an experimental physicist at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Berkeley, and transferred to the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Livermore, California, as a theoretical physicist.  From 1968 through 1983 he worked as a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, and participated in the National Academy of Sciences “Solar Physics Study.”  A fellow of the American Physics Society, he received the Meisinger Award in 1967 and the Rossby Research Medal in 1982, while a fellow with the American Meteorological Society.  See “Leith, Cecil Eldon, Jr.,” in Who’s Who in America, 2000, 54th Ed. New Providence, NJ:  Marquis Who’s Who, 1999.

Curtis E. LeMay (1906-1990) was a career Air Force officer who entered the Army Air Corps in the 1920s and rose through a series of increasingly responsible Army Air Forces commands in World War II. After the war LeMay built the Strategic Air Command into the premier nuclear deterrent force in the early 1950s. He also served as deputy chief of staff, 1957-1961, and chief of staff, 1961-1965, of the U.S. Air Force. He retired as a four-star general in 1965, and ran for vice president with independent candidate George C. Wallace in 1968. See Thomas M. Coffey, Iron Eagle: The Turbulent Life of General Curtis LeMay (New York: Crown Pub., 1986).

Lyman L. Lemnitzer (1899-1988) was a career army officer who served as Army vice chief of staff between 1957 and 1959; Army chief of staff, 1959-1960; chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1960-1962; commanding general of United States Forces, Europe, 1962-1969; and Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, 1963-1969. (William Gardner Bell, _Commanding Generals and Chiefs of Staff: Portraits & Biographical Sketches_ [Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 1982], p. 132; _New York Times_, 13 November 1988, p. 44).

Samuel Lenher (1905- ) was a chemical manufacturing executive with the Dupont Corporation in Wilmington, Delaware, from 1929 until his retirement.

Reimar Leust (1923- ) is a German theoretical physicist who held a variety of prestigious academic and advisory council posts before serving as Director General of ESA from 1984-1990. Miscellaneous foreign biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Robert B. Lewis was a longtime government official who joined NASA in 1961 as Director of Financial Management. He served until 1965, when he left the agency to return to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Miscellaneous NASA biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Willy Ley (1906-1969) was an extremely effective popularizer of spaceflight first in Germany and then after 1935 in the United States, to which he emigrated after Hitler's accession to power. He helped to found the large and significant German "Verein fur Raumschiffahrt" (Society for Spaceship Travel, or VfR) in 1927. He also wrote several books that dealt with the dream of spaceflight. One of the most important was Rockets: the Future of Travel Beyond the Stratosphere, first published in 1944. In it Ley labored to convince interested readers that rockets would soon be able to carry humans off the surface of the earth. One of the earliest books on rocketry for the general public, this work became a reference source for future science fiction and reality writing. A revised edition appeared in 1947, entitled Rockets and Space Travel, and another in 1952, Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel. An obituary can be found in the New York Times, June 25, 1969, p. 47.

William Liller (1927 -  ) is a scholar of archaeoastronomy.  He earned his A.B. from Harvard University in 1949, and his A.M. in 1950 and his Ph.D. (1953, astronomy) from the University of Michigan.  In 1952 he was an assistant at the McMath-Hulbert Observatory, University of Michigan.  From 1953 to 1960 he was an instructor, then an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Michigan.  He has been the Robert Wheeler Willson Professor of Applied Astronomy at Harvard University since 1970.  Professional memberships include:  the American Astronomical Society, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Astronomical Union, and the British Astronomical Association.  See “Liller, William” in American Men and Women of Science, 1998-99, 20th Ed. New Providence, NJ:  R. R. Bower, 1998.

William E. Lilly (1921- ) entered federal civilian service in 1950 as a budget and program analyst with the Navy Ordnance Test Station in California and held a variety of positions with the Navy and the Bureau of Standards until 1960 when he joined NASA as chief, plans and analysis, office of launch vehicles. He served NASA for 21 years, becoming its first comptroller--a position with associate administrator status--in 1973. He retired in 1981 with 37 years of federal service including service in the Navy from 1940-1946. See ìLilly, W.E.,î Biographical File, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Robert Peichung Lin (1942 -   ) is an academician in the fields of solar and space plasma physics and high-energy astrophysics.  He earned his B.S. from the California Institute of Technology (1962), and his Ph.D. (physics) from the University of California, at Berkeley (1967).   He started his career in 1967 as an assistant resident physicist, at the University of California, then served as a resident physicist, from 1979 to 1988.  He participated in the National Academy of Sciences “Solar Physics Study” in 1976.  From 1979 to 1988 he was resident physicist.  He has been the associate director of the Space Science Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, since 1992.  See “Lin, William Peichung” in American Men and Women of Science, 1998-99, 20th Ed. New Providence, NJ:  R. R. Bower, 1998.

Charles A. Lindbergh (1902-1974) was an early aviator who gained fame as the first pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1927. His public stature following this flight was such that he became an important voice on behalf of aerospace activities until his death. He served on a variety of national and international boards and committees, including the central committee of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in the United States. He became an expatriate living in Europe, following the kidnapping and murder of his two year old son in 1932. In Europe during the rise of fascism, Lindbergh assisted American aviation authorities by providing them with information about European technological developments. After 1936 he was especially important in warning the U.S. of the rise of Nazi air power. He assisted with the war effort in the 1940s by serving as a consultant to aviation companies and the government, and after the war he lived quietly in Connecticut and then Hawaii. See Walter S. Ross, The Last Hero: Charles A. Lindbergh (New York: Harper and Row, 1967).

Ernest K. Lindley (1899-1979) was a Rhodes scholar in 1923 and served as a reporter and political writer for the _New York World_ from 1924-1931, then wrote for the _Herald Tribune_ from 1931- 1937. He became chief of the Washington bureau of _Newsweek_ from 1937-1961 and also served as a political commentator for the _Washington Post_ for part of that period.

John V. Lindsay (1921- ) (R-NY) served in the House of Representatives from 1959-1965,when he became mayor of New York City.

Albert W. Lines (1914- ) was a British physicist who had previously been the principal cientific officer at the U.K. Ministry of Supply. His appointment to the directorship of the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnsborough apparently was quite recent because the 1959 _Directory of British Aviation_ listed Sir George Gardner in that position and its "Who's Who in British Aviation" did not even mention Lines.

Donald P. Ling was on the staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories. In 1954 he had co-authored a two-volume report entitled "Command Guidance for a Ballistic Missile." He continued working in this area and later became vice president of Bell Labs and, in 1970, president of Bellcom, Inc., a subsidiary incorporated in 1962. He retired in 1971. (_A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System: National Service in War and Peace (1925-1975)_, M. D. Fagen, ed. [Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1978], pp. 396, 447, 506, 699.)

Richard Emery Lingenfelter (1934 -   ) received his A.B. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1956.  He is a research physicist at the University of California, San Diego, Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, since 1979.  His concentrations are astrophysics and cosmic ray physics.  He was a professor in residence at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the Department of Geophysics and Space Physics from 1969 to 1979.  Concurrently, he worked in the Department of Astronomy from 1974 to 1979.”  See “Lingenfelter, Richard Emery” in American Men and Women of Science, 1998-99, 20th Ed. New Providence, NJ:  R. R. Bower, 1998.

Jeffrey L. Linsky (1941 -    ) earned his B.S., 1963, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and his A.M., 1965, and Ph.D. (astronomy), 1968, from Harvard University.  He is an authority on space and solar physics and has taught at the University of Colorado in the Department of Astronomy, Planetary, and Atmospheric Science as an adjunct professor since 1979.  In tandem, he was a member of the Joint Institute of Laboratory Astrophysics from 1968 to 1971.   See “Linsky, Jeffrey L.” in American Men and Women of Science, 1998-99, 20th Ed. New Providence, NJ:  R. R. Bower, 1998.

James E. Lipp (1910- ) earned a Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1935, and worked for the Douglas Aircraft Co., 1935-1948. Thereafter, he went to work for the Rand Corp., and eventually headed its aerospace division.

Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) was perhaps the most eminent and influential journalist of his day. He helped found and then edit _The New Republic_ in 1914. He wrote editorials for and then edited the _World_ from 1921 to 1931 and then began a column for the _New York Herald Tribune that was eventually syndicated in more than 250 newspapers andwon two Pulitzer Prizes (1958, 1962).

William Littlewood (1898-1967) was a vice president of American Airlines in charge of engineering from 1937 to 1963. Before that, he was regarded as the developer of the DC-3 that helped revolutionize air travel. From 1946 to 1964 he chaired the NACA committee on operating problems and its NASA successor, the committee on aircraft operating problems and was one of the country's most highly regarded aircraft engineers, known as an advocate of the government's devoting more resources to the research and development of aircraft rather than spacecraft. ("William Littlewood," biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.)

O.B. Lloyd (1916-1990)  After graduating from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in 1938, “Bill” Lloyd was a staff member for Senator Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Texas).  He left this position in 1961 to join NASA as Director of Public Services until retirement in 1979.  He was awarded NASA’s Exceptional Service Medal in 1969.  (“Lloyd, O. B.” biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.)

Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (1902-1985) had been a senator from Massachusetts (1937-1944, 1947-1952) and had been active in promoting President Eisenhower's presidential candidacy. Eisenhower appointed him permanent representative to the U.N. (1953-1960), from which position he advised the president on domestic affairs as well as U.N. issues. He was Richard M. Nixon's vice presidential running mate in 1960 and then U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam(1963-1964, 1965-1967). See his _As It Was: An Inside View of Politics and Power in the '50s and '60s_ (New York: W. W. Norton, 1976).

Russell Long (1918- ) served as a U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1948-1987. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1989, (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office).

Alan M. Lovelace (1929- ) was born in St. Petersburg, Florida, and was educated at the University of Florida in Gainesville.  He received a B.S. degree in chemistry in 1951, a M.Sc. degree in organic chemistry in 1952, and a Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry in 1954.  Shortly after the Korean conflict, he served in the United States Air Force from 1954 to 1956.  He began his government career as a scientist at the Air Force Materials Laboratory (AFML), Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio.  In January 1964, he was named chief scientist of the Air Force Materials Laboratory, and in 1967 named director.  In October 1972, he became the director of science and technology for the Air Force Systems Command at Headquarters, Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland.  In September 1973, he became the principal deputy to the assistant secretary of the Air Force for research and development. One year later, he left the Department of Defense to become the associate administrator of the NASA Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology.  He became deputy administrator after the departure of George Low in June 1976. He retired from NASA in July 1981, and accepted a position as Corporate Vice President--Science and Engineering with the General Dynamics Corporation at St. Louis, Missouri.  See “Lovelace, Alan  M.,” Deputy Administrator files, NASA Historical Reference Collection.

A. C. Bernard Lovell (1913- ) taught physics at the University of Manchester in England before World War II, specializing in cosmic ray investigations. During the war he worked on radar development. Upon return to Manchester, he established the Jodrell Bank station in nearby Cheshire, setting up a radio telescope with a 250-foot antenna. It was completed in 1957 and was used by NASA to receive signals from the Pioneer series of moon probes and as a sensitive receiver of signals bounced off the passive Echo satellite in the period of this diary. ("Bernard Lovell," biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.)

James A., Jr. Lovell (1928 -   ) flew on four space flights and was a member of the first crew to circle the moon.  He was selected in the second group of astronauts in 1962 and flew in the Gemini 7, Gemini 12, Apollo 8, and Apollo 13 missions, thus making him the first person to fly twice to the moon.  Following his graduation with a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1952, Lovell received his flight training and was later assigned as a test pilot at the Naval Air Test Center in Maryland.  A graduate of the Aviation Safety School of the University of Southern California, he also served as a flight instructor and safety engineer with Fighter Squadron 101 at the Naval Air Station, Oceana, Virginia.  In addition to the four missions in which Captain Lovell flew, he also served as backup pilot for Gemini 4, backup Commander for both Gemini 9 and Apollo 11.  In 1971, he was named Deputy Director of Science and Applications at NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston.  In addition to these duties, he was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to serve as a consultant for Physical Fitness and Sports and was later made Chairman of the Council by President Nixon.  Lovell retired from the Navy and NASA in1973 to accept a position as Senior Executive Vice President in the Bay Houston Towing Company.  Among his many honors are the Presidential Medal for Freedom, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal and two Navy Distinguished Flying Crosses.  See “Lovell, James A., Jr.  Apollo flights,” biographical file 001350, NASA Historical Reference Collection, History Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC and “James A. Lovell” (http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/lovell-ja.html) accessed 31 October 2006.

George M. Low (1926-1984), a native of Vienna, Austria, came to the U.S. in 1940 and received an aeronautical engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in 1948 and an M.S. in the same field from that school in 1950.  He joined the NACA in 1949 and at Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory he specialized in experimental and theoretical research in several fields.  He became chief of piloted space flight at NASA Headquarters in 1958.  In 1960, he chaired a special committee that formulated the original plans for the Apollo lunar landings.  In 1964 he became deputy director of the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, the forerunner of the Johnson Space Center.  He became deputy administrator of NASA in 1969 and served as acting administrator in 1970-1971.  He retired from NASA in 1976 to become president of RPI, a position he  held until his death.  In 1990 NASA renamed its quality and excellence award after him.  See "Low, George M.," Deputy Administrator file 004133, NASA Historical Reference Collection, History Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC and “George M. Low” (http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Biographies/low.html) accessed 23 October 2006.

Percival Lowell (1855-1916) was the U.S. astronomer who predicted the existence of the planet Pluto. A Boston Brahmin, Lowell was a gentleman scholar who was involved in literature, writing several books on his travels around the globe. He also served as counselor and foreign secretary to the Korean Special Mission to the U.S. Lowell developed an interest in astronomy in middle age, and founded an observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, to study the Solar System, especially Mars. He was enamored with the prospect of life on the Red Planet and theorized that its "canals" were the product of intelligent life (William Graves Hoyt, Lowell and Mars [Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1976]).

George Harry Ludwig (1927-) As a physicist and electrical engineer, Dr. Ludwig is credited as one of three discoverers of the Van Allen radiation belts.  He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1960 from the University of Iowa and began working at Goddard Space Flight Center in the Fields and Particles Instrumentation Section.  After 12 years at Goddard (including service as Associate Director for Data Operations), Dr. Ludwig changed careers and began working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  His employment in the NOAA in the National Environmental Satellite Service lasted for eleven years (1972-83), during which he became the Director of Environmental Research Laboratories.  He served as Assistant to the Chief Scientist at NASA Headquarters from 1983-84 and was involved in the designing of the Space Station from 1983-92.  Additionally, Dr. Ludwig was the principle designer of radiation detection instrumentation for several scientific spacecraft, including Explorer 1.  He oversaw development and operation for the United States National Environmental Satellite System from 1972-80 and was awarded the Program Administration ad Management Award from NOAA in 1977.  He is also a Van Allen scholar (1958), a research fellow for the U.S. Steel Foundation (1958-60), a recipient of NASA’s Exceptional Service medal (1969) and a recipient of NASA’s Exceptional Science Achievement medal (1984).  A life member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, he is also a member of the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union.  (Marquis Who’s Who;  Reed Elsevier Inc.  2000).

Alvin R. Luedecke (1910- ) served in the Army Air Corps and the Air Force from 1934 to 1958, rising through the ranks to become a major general. He served as the executive secretary of the military liaison committee to the Atomic Energy Commission from 1949-1951 and was thereafter deputy chief and then chief of the Armed Forces Special WeaponsProject, 1951-1957, and commander of Joint Task Force 7, 1957-1958. >From 1958 to 1964 he was general manager of the AEC. Thereafter, he became deputy director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1964-1967; associate dean of engineering at Texas A&M, 1968-1970; acting president of Texas A&M, 1970; and the university's executive vice president beginning in 1971. ("Alvin R. Luedecke," biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.)

Bruce T. Lundin (1919-2006 ) earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of California in 1942 and worked for Standard Oil of California before joining the staff at Lewis Laboratory in 1943. He investigated heat transfer and worked to improve the performance of World War II aircraft engines. Then in 1946 he became chief of the jet propulsion research section, which conducted some of America's early research on turbojet engines. He became assistant director of Lewis in 1958 and directed much of the center's efforts in space propulsion and power generation. He advanced through the positions of associate director for development (1961) at Lewis, managing the development and operation of the Centaur and Agena launch vehicles, and of deputy associate administrator for advanced research and technology at NASA Headquarters (1968), before becoming acting associate administrator for advanced research and technology there (1969). Later that year, he received the appointment as director of the Lewis Research Center, where he remained until his retirement in 1977. ("Bruce T. Lundin," biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.)

Glynn S. Lunney (1936- ) was a longtime NASA official. Trained as an aeronautical engineer, he came to the Lewis Research Center near the time of the creation of NASA in 1958, and became a part of the Space Task Group developing Project Mercury the next year. He worked on the Apollo program in series of positions, including Manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program in 1973, and manager of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project at the Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas. Thereafter, he managed the development of the Space Shuttle and served in several other NASA positions. Lunney retired from NASA in 1985 and became vice president and general manager, Houston Operations, for Rockwell International's Space Systems Division. See "Lunney, Glenn S.," biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

M

Harold Macmillan (1894-1986) became a British Member of Parliament in 1924, Foreign Secretary in 1955, and then served as Prime Minister from 1957-1963. "Macmillan, (Maurice) Harold," 1987 Current Biography Yearbook, p. 637.

Walter A. MacNair (1901- ) was an electrical engineer who worked with the Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1929-1952, and the Consolidated Electrodynamics Corp., thereafter.

Robert Moffat MacQueen (1938 -    ) received his B.S. from Rhodes College in 1960, and his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1968.  He was a senior research scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, from 1967 to 1990.  In the early to mid 1970s he was the principle investigator on NASA’s Apollo and Skylab programs, and from 1976 to 1979 he was the principle investigator for NASA’s Solar Maximum Mission.  From 1973 to 1976 he was a member of the Committee on Space Astronomy of the National Academy of Sciences; from 1977 to 1979 he was a member of the Committee on Space Physics; and from 1983 to 1986 he was a member of the Space Science Board.  See “MacQueen, Robert Moffat.” in Who’s Who in America, 2000, 54th Ed. New Providence, NJ:  Marquis Who’s Who, 1999.

John W. Macy, Jr. was chair of the Civil Service Commission during the Kennedy administration. He served as a member of a study committee in 1961 to ascertain the viability of contracting-out considerable functions in aerospace research and development. The 1961 study was known as the "Bell Report" because the chair of the committee was David E. Bell, director of the Bureau of the Budget.

Warren G. Magnuson (1905-1989) (D-WA) was elected to the House of Representatives in 1936 and served until 1944 when he was appointed to fill an unexpired term in the Senate. He was subsequently elected to the Senate later that year and remained a senator until 1981.

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Maksimov (1923-1990) was Commander of GUKOS (Military Space Forces) from 1979-1990, and oversaw development of Energiya-Buran system for the military.  (Provided by Asif Siddiqi)

Frank J. Malina (1912-1981) was a young Caltech Ph.D. student in the mid-1930s when he began an aggressive rocket research program to design a high-altitude sounding rocket. Beginning in late 1936 Malina and his colleagues started the static testing of rocket engines in the canyons above the Rose Bowl, with mixed results, but a series of tests eventually led to the development of the WAC-Corporal rocket during World War II. After the war, Malina worked with the United Nations and eventually retired to Paris to pursue a career as an artist. See "Malina, Frank J.," biographical folder, NASA Historical Reference Collection.

Gordon Manning was a journalist with several periodicals. He was a staff writer for Collier's, 1948-1949, and worked in a series of increasingly responsible positions for Newsweek, 1949-1964. Between 1961 and 1964 he was executive editor. Thereafter he worked with television, first as vice president, director of news for CBS, 1964-1972, and executive producer of NBC News, 1975-1978.

Vittorio Manno (1938- ) is an Italian physicist who was a senior scientist at ESA's Science Directorate from 1972-1989. From 1989-1995, Manno served as the scientific attaché at the Italian Embassy in Vienna. Miscellaneous foreign biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Hans Mark (1929- ) became NASA deputy administrator in July 1981.  He had previously served as secretary of the Air Force from July 1979 until February 1981, and as under secretary of the Air Force from 1977 to 1979.  In February 1969, Mark became director of NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California, where he managed research and applications efforts in aeronautics, space science, life science and space technology.    He received a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1954.  Born in Mannheim, Germany, he came to the United States in 1940, and became a citizen in 1945.  Upon leaving NASA he became Chancellor of the University of Texas-Austin.  See "Mark, Hans," Deputy Administrator Folders, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Leonard H. Marks was one of the original Comsat incorporators appointed by President Kennedy. He resigned from Comsat's board of directors in 1965 to become director of the U.S. Information Agency. "Miscellaneous Industry," Biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, Washington, DC.

Robert T. Marsh, a general in the Air Force, was commander of the Air Force Systems Command from 1982-1984. Miscellaneous DoD biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

George C. Marshall (1880-1959) was a career Army officer who served as general of the army and U.S. Army chief of staff during World War II. He became secretary of state (1947-1949) and of defense (1950-1951) and was the author of the European recovery program known to the world as the Marshall Plan; it played a critical role in reconstructing a Europe ravaged by the war that Marshall had done so much to direct to a victorious end. In recognition of the effects of the Marshall Plan and his contributions to world peace, he received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1953. It was fitting that a NASA center should be named after the only professional soldier to receive the prize, given NASA's charter to devote itself to the peaceful uses of outer space and yet to cooperate with the military services. (The standard source on Marshall is the magisterial, multivolume biography by Forrest C. Pogue, _George C. Marshall_ [New York: Viking, 1963-1966], but there are several recent one-volume studies, including Mark A. Stoler, _George C. Marshall: Soldier-Statesman of the American Century_ [Boston: Twayne, 1989].)

Franklin D. Martin is a native of China Grove, North Carolina.  He received an A.B. in physics and math from Pfieffer College, Misenheimer, North Carolina, in 1966, and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Tennessee, in 1971.  He began his career with NASA in 1974.  Before Joining NASA, he served as a physicist with the Naval Oceanographic Office and as an aerospace engineer for Lockheed.   He was assistant administrator for the Office of Exploration from 1988 to 1989.  Prior to that appointment, in 1986 he was named deputy associate administrator for the Space Station office.  From 1983 through 1986, Dr. Martin was at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center as the director of  the Office of Space and Earth Sciences.  See “Martin, Franklin D.,” biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection.

John J. Martin was educated as a mechanical engineer, receiving a Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1951. He joined North American Aviation in 1951 and moved to the Bendix Corp. in 1953. In 1960 he joined the Institute for Defense Analyses and in 1969 moved to the staff of the President's Science Advisor at the White House. During 1973-1974 he served as the Associate Deputy to the Director of Central Intelligence and was Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Research and Development), 1974-1976, before returning to Bendix. He became a NASA official in 1984, as Associate Administrator for Aeronautics and Space Technology at the NASA Headquarters, before returning to industry in 1985. See "Martine, Dr. John J.," biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Joseph W. Martin, Jr. (1884-1968) (R-MA) had been a member of Congress since 1924 and until 1958, minority leader of the House of Representatives every session since 1939 except for the years 1947-1949 and 1953-1955, when he was speaker of the House.

Paul Logan Martin (1912-1978) worked for a variety of newspapers and the Press Association, Inc. before becoming the political and legal correspondent for Gannett Newspapers from 1947- 1950. From 1950 to 1966, he was chief of Gannett's bureau before becoming an editor for _U.S. News and World Report.

Sir Harrie S.W. Massey (1908- ) was Quain Professor of Physics at University College, London, and chairman of the British National Space Research Committee in the early 1960s. He was the leader of a team of British scientists responsible for the election of the experiments and instruments for the S.51 satellite project, an Anglo-American cooperative effort begun in 1959 to launch individual instruments into space for scientific purposes. See "Biography Foreign Miscellaneous I-M," biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

John C. Mather (1946- ) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in October of 2006 for his work that found tangible evidence supporting the Big Bang theory. Dr. Mather was the first NASA civil servant scientist to ever win the Prize. His work was based on measurements made by NASA’s Cosmic Background Explorer satellite (COBE) that studied the pattern of radiation from the first few instants after the universe was formed, a project that he helped propose and manage. His analysis of the data the COBE returned showed that the big bang radiation has a spectrum that agrees exactly with the theoretical prediction. Dr. Mather earned a Bachelor’s degree in physics from Swarthmore College in 1968 and a doctorate in physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1974. He then joined NASA in 1974 at the Goddard Space Flight Center to head the COBE Mission as Project Scientist. After COBE was finally launched in 1989 and the data was gathered and analyzed, Mather and his team made the first announcement that they had hard evidence supporting the Big Bang theory in 1992. Dr. Mather has been a Goddard Fellow since 1994 and has worked on numerous projects, including serving as Senior Project Scientist and Chair of the Science Working Group of the James Webb Space Telescope. His other awards include the John C. Lindsay Memorial Award, the AIAA Space Award and the Dannie Heinemann Prize for Astrophysics. See “Mather, John C.,” biographical file 18658, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Charles W. Mathews (1921-2001) was NASA’s Associate Administrator for Applications from 1971 until 1976.  After earning a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1943, he immediately joined the engineering staff at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Langley Research Center.  Here he conducted research on supersonic flight, automatic control devices and systems for use in the interception of enemy bombers, and piloted spacecraft studies.  In 1958, Mathews became chief of the NASA Space Task Group Operations Division and was responsible for the overall operations of Project Mercury.  Upon the successful completion of the Mercury program, he was named Gemini Program Manager at the Manned Spacecraft Center in 1963.  Following Gemini’s success, Mathews was made the Director of the Skylab Program in 1966 and moved to NASA Headquarters.  Two years later he became the Deputy Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight.  He retired from the organization in 1976 after thirty-three years of government service.  See “Mathews, Charles W.,” biographical file 001443, NASA Historical Reference Collection, History Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Owen E. Maynard (1924-2000) was responsible for the conceptualization and design of the lunar module used in the Apollo program.  After serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II, Maynard earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Toronto while working on and eventually designing aircraft at Avro Canada.  He joined NASA in 1959 to work on the Mercury program and first became involved with Apollo the following year.  Maynard was one of the early supporters of the lunar orbit rendezvous method and became the chief of engineering for the lunar module in 1963.  He served as chief of the systems engineering division in the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office from 1964 to 1970, at which time he left NASA to work in the private sector for the remainder of his career.  See (http://history.nasa.gov/maynard.html) accessed 27 September 2006.

Robert P. Mayo (1916- ) was an economist and President Richard Nixon's first Director of the Bureau of the Budget (BOB). On July 1, 1970, when the BOB was replaced with the Office of Management and Budget, Mayo was shifted to the White House as a presidential assistant. In July 1970 he left Washington to assume the presidency of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago ("Mayo, Robert P(orter)," Current Biography 1970, pp. 282-84).

Daniel G. Mazur (1916-1984)  earned his degree in electrical engineering from Worchester Polytechnic Institute in Worchester, Massachusetts.  He began his federal career with the Philadelphia Navy Yard and transferred to Washington, DC, in 1946.  Prior to joining NASA, as one of the first employees in 1958, he was at the Naval Research Laboratory.  In 1964, he received NASA’s Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement for his work on communications satellites. He retired in 1973 as associate deputy director for engineering of the Goddard Space Flight Center.   See “Mazur, Daniel G.,” biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection.

Edward A. McCabe (1917- ) was part of Eisenhower's congressional liaison staff. His formal titles were associate counsel to the president, 1956-1958, and administrative assistant, 1958-1961. After the end of the Eisenhower administration, McCabe became a partner in the law firm Hamel, Park, McCabe & Saunders.

John A. McCone (1902-1991) began his career as a construction engineer in 1929 and became executive vice president and director of the Consolidated Steel Corporation, 1933-1937. He was organizer and president of Bechtel-McCone Corporation (an engineering firm), 1937-1945, and subsequently served as a business executive with several other firms. He worked in the Defense Department from 1948 to 1951 and as chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, 1958- 1960. He was appointed director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1961 and remained in that position until 1965.

John W. McCormack (1891-1980) (D-MA) was a member of the House of Representatives serving the district in which Boston was located. He first entered the House in 1929 to fill the unexpired term of the late James A. Gallivan and served until his retirement in 1970. He was House majority leader from 1955 to 1962 and speaker of the House between 1962 and 1970. (_Official Congressional Directory for the Use of the United States Congress_ [Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1970], p. 81).

Richard C. McCurdy (1909 -   ), an engineer specializing in petroleum, was associate administrator for organization and management at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C., 1970-1973, and a consultant to the agency from 1973 to 1982.

James A. McDivitt (1929 -   ) commanded the Gemini 4 and Apollo 9 missions and was the program manager for Apollo 12 through Apollo 16.  He earned a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1959, graduating first in his class.  Before he was selected by NASA as an astronaut in 1962, McDivitt served in the U.S. Air Force and flew 145 combat missions during the Korean War.  He is a graduate of both the USAF Experimental Test Pilot School and the USAF Aerospace Pilot Research course, after which he served as an experimental test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base, California.  He left NASA and retired from the Air Force with the rank of Brigadier General in 1972 to work in leading executive positions in various private firms.  McDivitt’s awards include two NASA Distinguished Service Medals, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, and four Honorary Doctorates in Science and Law.  See (http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/mcdivitt-ja.html) accessed 2 October 2006.

Frank Bethune McDonald (1925 -    ) received  his B.S. degree from Duke University (1948), and his M.S. (1951) and Ph.D. (1955) degrees from the University of Minnesota.  Professional memberships include: the National Academy of Sciences, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Physics Society.  He was the head of the Fields and Particles Branch at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center from 1959 through 1970.  From 1964 to 1989, he was, concurrently, project scientist for explorer satellites and high energy astronomy observatories, and served in 1976 as a participant in the National Academy of Sciences “Solar Physics Study” and as the chief of the Laboratory of High Energy Astrophysics.  See “McDonald, Frank Bethune” in American Men and Women of Science, 1998-99, 20th Ed. New Providence, NJ:  R. R. Bower, 1998.

James S. McDonnell, Jr. (1899-1980) graduated from MIT with an M.S. in aeronautical engineering in 1925 and worked as an engineer and pilot with a variety of aircraft companies before he founded McDonnell Aircraft Corp. in St. Louis in 1939. He served as its president until 1962. The FH-1 Phantom, which first flew in 1946, was the first in a line of fighter aircraft his company produced, including the F-4 Phantom 2, the F-15 Eagle, and the F- 18 Hornet. In 1959 the company became the contractor for the Mercury spacecraft; almost three years later it also became contractor for the Gemini spacecraft. In 1967, McDonnell Aircraft merged with Douglas Aircraft Co. to form McDonnell Douglass Corp., with James McDonnell serving as chairman and chief executive officer until 1972 and chairman thereafter. (See esp. obituaries in _Aviation Week and Space Technology_, 1 Sept. 1980, p. 50 and the _New York Times_, 23 Aug. 1980, p. 11.)

John H. McElroy earned a B.S.E.E. from the University of Texas at Austin, a MEE from the Catholic University of America, and his Ph.D. from the Catholic University of America.   McElroy began his NASA career in 1966 at Goddard Space Flight Center, where he directed research on laser communication systems, tracking and radiometry, and advanced satellite communications technology.  Dr. McElroy also served as deputy director of Goddard Space Flight Center from 1980 to 1982.  See “McElroy, Dr. John H.” biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Neil H. McElroy (1904-1972) became secretary of defense in 1957 and served through 1959. He had previously been president of Procter & Gamble and returned there in December 1959 to become chair of the board. He served in that position until October 1972, a month before his death.  (“McElroy, Niel H.” biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.)

Carl Edwin McIIwain (1931-) was on President Johnson’s Science Advisory Committee on the Fields and Particles and Anti-Submarine Warfare subcommittees from 1964 to 1967.  After receiving his Ph.D. from the State University of Iowa in 1960, he became a member of NASA’s Space Science Steering Committee from 1962 to 1966..  He was a recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship in 1967.  Additionally, Dr. McIlwain is a member of the American Institute of Physics and the American Geophysics Union.  He has published works on measurements of charged particles producing bright auroral display and Van Allen radiation.  (Who’s Who in Science from Antiquity to Present; Marquis Who’s Who Inc.  Debus, Allen G.  1968.)

Robert S. McNamara (1916- ) was Secretary of Defense during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, 1961-1968. Thereafter he served as president of the World Bank, where he remained until retirement in 1981. As Secretary of Defense in 1961, McNamara was intimately involved in the process of approving Project Apollo by the Kenned Administration. See "McNamara, Robert S(trange)," Current Biography Yearbook 1987, pp. 408-13; John M. Logsdon, The Decision to Go to the Moon: Project Apollo and the National Interest (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1970).

H. Roemer McPhee (1925- ) served at this time as associate special counsel to the president in the White House, where he began work in 1957. A lawyer educated at Princeton and Harvard, at the end of the Eisenhower administration he became a partner in the law firm of Hamel, Morgan, Park and Saunders.

John M. McSweeney (1916-1979) was a career foreign service officer. From 1959 to 1961 he was deputy director and then director of the office of Soviet Union affairs in the State Department. He became the U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria from 1967 to 1970.

George Meader (1907- ) (R-MI) began serving in the House of Representatives in 1950 and served until 1964.

John B. Medaris (1902-1990) was a major general commanding the Army Ballistic Missile Agency when T. Keith Glennan tried to incorporate it into NASA in the late 1950s. He attempted to retain the organization as part of the Army, but with a series of Department of Defense agreements the Air Force obtained primacy in space activities and Medaris could not succeed in his effort. Medaris also worked with Wernher von Braun to launch Explorer I in early 1958. He retired from the Army in 1969 and became an Episcopal priest, later joining an even more conservative Anglican-Catholic church. ("John Bruce Medaris," biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection; John B. Medaris with Arthur Gordon, Countdown for Decision (New York: Putnam, 1960).)

John T. Mengel (1918- ) taught physics at Lafayette College from 1939-1940, worked for General Electric from 1940-1942, and then developed and evaluated special detection devices at the Bureau of Ships from 1942-1946. He joined the Naval Research Laboratory in 1946, becoming head of the electronic instrument section in 1947. In 1955 he became head of the tracking and guidance branch for Project Vanguard. He joined NASA in 1958 in the same position. From 1959-1973 he was director for tracking and data systems at Goddard Space Flight Center. ("John T. Mengel," biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.)

Livingston T. Merchant (1903-1976) was under secretary of state for political affairs during the period of the Glennan diary. He served in the Department of State from 1942 to 1962.

Robert E. Merriam (1918-1988) was deputy assistant to the president for interdepartmental affairs between 1958 and 1961. Previously he had been an urban planner and housing administrator in Chicago, 1946-1955, and deputy director of the Bureau of the Budget, 1955-1958. At the conclusion of the Eisenhower administration, Merriam became president successively of Spaceonics, Inc., 1961-1964 and Universal Patents, Inc., 1964- 1971; then chair of the board of MGA Tech., Inc., 1971-1988.

Ruben F. Mettler (1924- ) was an electronics and engineering company executive who worked for the Hughes Aircraft Co., 1949-1954; Ramo-Wooldridge Corp., 1955-1958; TRW Space Technology Laboratories, 1958-1965; TRW Systems Group, 1965-1968; president and chief operating officer of TRW Inc., 1969-1977; and TRW chairman of the board and CEO, 1977-1988.

Barbara Ann Mikulski (1936-) Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) became the first Democratic woman elected to Senate in 1987.   She was immediately elected Chairman of Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Veteran Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies, with jurisdiction over NASA.  Though her subcommittee covers a wide range of subjects, she is best known in the science community for her defense of NASA during intense budget cuts.  Because many Goddard Space Flight Center employees are Maryland residents, Sen. Mikulski has fought countless battles for increased funding and against downsizing.  She earned the American Astronautical Society’s John F. Kennedy Award in 1995.  (“Mikulski, Barbara Ann” biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.)

Vasiliy Pavlovich Mishin (1917-2001) was Chief Designer from 1966-1974 at OKB-1 (Korolev) and led work on the NI-L3 piloted lunar program.  (Provided by Asif Siddiqi)

Stuart Miller (1927- ) was a research engineer in industry, working with the Chrysler Corp, 1952-1953; and the General Electric Co., 1953-1977.

Robert A. Millikan (1868-1953) was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Best known for his research on cosmic rays, he also built Caltech into a world-class educational and scientific institution which he presided over until his retirement in 1946. For more information on Millikan see Robert H. Kargon, The Rise of Robert Millikan: Portrait of a Life in American Science (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982), and The Autobiography of Robert A. Millikan (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1950).

Wilbur D. Mills (1909-1992) (D-AR) was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1939 to 1977. He served as chair of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, 1957-1975 (obituary in New York Times, May 3, 1992, p. I53).

L. Arthur Minnich, Jr. (1918- ) was assistant staff secretary in the Office of the White House, 1953-1960. A historian by training, he also served on the faculty of Lafayette College before 1953. After leaving the White House, he served as the Executive Secretary of UNESCO.

Newton Minow (1926- ) was a lawyer in Chicago before being appointed to the chairmanship of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by President Kennedy. He gained a reputation by attacking the quality of television programming and threatening to revoke broadcast licenses based on programming. He returned to his law practice following Kennedyís assassination and joined the Public Broadcasting System board in 1973. He became chairman of that organization in 1978, and then moved to the directorship of the Annenberg Communications Program in Washington in 1987. See ìMinow, Newton (Norman)î in John S. Bowman, ed., The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography (Cambridge, England: The Cambridge University Press, 1995).

Elliott Mitchell earned a B.S. in chemistry from William and Mary in 1941 and served from 1942 to 1950 as a physical chemist and chemical engineer in the Department of the Navy. From then until 1958 he was physical sciences administrator and then chief of propulsion research and development in the Navy's Bureau of Ordnance. In 1958 he joined NASA as chief of the solid rocket development program. When he left NASA in 1961, he was assistant director of manned space flight programs for propulsion. Thereafter, he became a consultant. ("Elliott Mitchell," biographical files, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.)

Erwin Mitchell (1924- )served as a Democratic Congressman from Georgia from 1958-1961. He was Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Patents and Scientific Inventions, Committee on Science and Astronautics. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1989, (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989).

James P. Mitchell (1900-1964) had served as director of personnel and industrial relations for R. H. Macy & Co. from 1945- 1947 and became vice president of Bloomingdale's in the latter year, with responsibility for labor relations. He became secretary of labor in 1953 after his predecessor had resigned over the failure of the Eisenhower administration to amend the Taft-Hartley law to abolish its right-to-work provision in favor of organized labor. Mitchell served as secretary of labor until 1961, making some efforts to recommend amendments to Taft-Hartley but without either success or the fervor his predecessor had exhibited in the interests of organized labor. (See Steven E. Ambrose, _Eisenhower, the President_, pp. 116-118.)

Richard T. Mittauer (1927-1973) had worked as a news editor for radio station WOW in his native Omaha, Nebraska, and as a newswriter for ABC in Chicago before coming to Washington, D.C., in 1954 as a congressional intern at the American Political Science Association. From 1955-1959 he was press secretary for Senator Roman L. Hruska before joining NASA's office of public information the latter year. He became director of that office in 1972.

James J. Modarelli had headed the research reports division at Lewis Laboratory when NACA Executive Secretary John Victory requested suggestions for a NASA seal. Members of the illustration section in Modarelli's division sent in some designs, one of which (referred to as the "meatball" to distinguish it from a later insignia called the "worm") was selected and approved. Modarelli is generally credited as the designer. By 1959, Modarelli had moved to NASA Headquarters as head of the exhibits branch of the office of public information. ("James J. Modarelli," biographical file and headquarters telephone directories, 1959-1960, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.)

Jack Pendleton Monroe (1904- ) was a career naval officer who became a rear admiral in 1956. He served as commander of the Pacific Missile Range from 1957-1961 before becoming the director of astronautics for the chief of naval operations from 1961-1963.

A. S. Mike Monroney (1902-1980) (D-OK) was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1938 and served there through 1950 when he won election to the Senate, where he served through 1969.

Gerald D. Morgan (1908-1976) served in a variety of capacities in the Eisenhower White House--special assistant, 1953; administrative assistant to the president, 1953-1955; special counsel to the president, 1955-1958; and deputy assistant, 1958- 1961. Previously he had been a partner with the Washington law firms of Morgan and Calhoun (1946-1950) and Hamel, Park, and Saunders (1950-1953), and assistant legislative counsel with the U.S. House of Representatives (1935-1945).

Oskar Morgenstern (1902- ) was a German born and trained economist. He came to the United States in 1925, and worked at Princeton University after 1938. He founded and headed Mathematica, Inc., which provided economic analyses to government and industry.

Robert S. Morison (1906-1986) was at this time director of the natural and medical sciences for the Rockefeller Foundation and a member of the Kety committee (see entry under Kety). He had worked for the Rockefeller Foundation in various capacities since 1944.

Brooks Morris (1913-?) was an aerospace engineer who worked as a manager of quality assurance and reliability at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1961-1981. Who's Who in Aviation and Aerospace, U.S. edition, (Boston and New York: National Aeronautical Institute and Jane's Publishing Company, Ltd., 1983).

Delmar M. Morris (1913-1961) was deputy director for administration at the Marshall Space Flight Center. Until his untimely death from a heart attack, he had worked since March 1960 helping Wernher von Braun transfer his organization from the Army Ballistic Missile Agency to NASA. At his death, Morris had almost 25 years of government service with a variety of agencies, most recently the Atomic Energy Commission. ("Delmar M. Morris," biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.)

Donald Morris was a former Foreign Service Officer who joined NASA in 1967. Morris served as Deputy Assistant Administrator for International Affairs and then became Deputy Associate Administrator for Applications - Management in 1976. In 1977 he was detailed to the President's Committee on Science and Technology. See Assorted NASA officials biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

David Morrison came to NASA on an Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) appointment from the University of Hawaii and was named to the position of acting deputy associate administrator for space science, in 1981. A noted astronomer with a wealth of experience in space science programs, he was appointed chief of the space division at NASA’s Ames Research Center in1994. See “Morrison, David,” biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection.

Richard S. Morse (1911-1988) was at this time director of research and development for the Army (1959-1961). He had previously served as director of the National Research Corporation from 1940-1959.

Frank E. "Ted" Moss (1906- ) (D-UT) was first elected to the Senate in 1958 and served until 1977. Between 1972 and 1977 he served as chair of the Senate Space Committee.

Robert H. Moser (1923 -  ) earned a B.S. from Loyola University in 1944 and an M.D. from Georgetown University in 1948.  He served as flight controller for Project Mercury from 1959 to 1962.  He was also a consulting member of the Project Gemini medical evaluation team from 1962 to 1966.  He consulted for the Apollo program from 1967 to 1973.  From 1978 to 1982, he served as chairman of the life sciences advisory committee.  He was a member of the NASA Advisory Council from 1983-1988. He was a member of the advisory committee for the NASA Space Station program from 1988-1993.  See Who's Who in America 2000 New Providence, NJ: Marquis Who's Who, 1999.

Michael Mott (1949-2005) was a NASA associate deputy administrator from 1993 to 1998, during which he chaired the Space Operations Management Council and the Space Transportation Council. A former F-18 pilot and lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, Mott worked to forge ties with the Russians after the Cold War. In 1998, Mott became vice president and general manager of NASA systems for the Boeing Company in Houston, where he oversaw 4,120 employees charged with operational support for the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. (Houston Chronicle, November 23, 2005;"Michael A. Mott," biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.)

Yuriy Aleksandrovich Mozzhorin (1920-1998) was Director of NII-88 (or TsNIIMash), the leading R&D institute in the Soviet space program, from 1961-1990. He was also responsible for all public relations and censorship for Soviet space publications.  (Provided by Asif Siddiqi)

George E. Mueller (1918 -   ) was Associate Administrator for the Office of Manned Space Flight at NASA Headquarters, 1963-1969, where he responsible for overseeing the completion of Project Apollo and of beginning the development of the Space Shuttle.  He moved to the General Dynamics Corp., as senior vice president in 1969, and remained until 1971.  He then became president of the Systems Development Corporation, 1971-1980, and its chairman and CEO, 1981-1983. He was for a number of years the President of the International Academy of Astronautics and a founder of Kistler Aerospace. See "Mueller, George E.," biographical file 001520, NASA Historical Reference Collection, History Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Karl Mundt (1900-1974) was served as Republican Representative from South Dakota from January 3, 1939 until December 30, 1948. He then served as a Senator from December 31, 1948 until January 3, 1973. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1996 (Washington, DC: CQ Staff Directories, Inc., 1997).

Robert Murphy (1894-1978) was a career foreign service officer and State Department official. He served as Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and then as Under Secretary in the 1950s. Biographical information from the Biographic Register of the Department of State, 1959, the Department of State History Office, Washington, DC.

Edmund Muskie (1914 -   ) (D-ME) served in the United States Senate, 1959-1981.

Thomas A. Mutch  (1931-1980)  earned a Ph.D. in geology from Princeton University in 1960.  Previously a professor of geological sciences at Brown University, he led the Viking spacecraft’s imaging “science team” from 1969 to 1977.  He became the NASA associate administrator for space science in 1979, and died in a 1980 climbing accident in the Himalayas.  See “Mutch, Thomas A.,” biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection.

Dale D. Myers (1922 -   ) served as NASA deputy administrator from October 1986 until 1989. He had previously been under secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy from 1977 to 1979. From 1974 to 1977 he was vice-president, Rockwell International, and president, North American Aircraft Group, El Segundo, California. He was also the associate administrator for Manned Space Flight at NASA from 1970 to 1974. From 1969 to 1970 Mr. Myers served as vice-president/program manager, Space Shuttle Program, Rockwell International. He was vice-president and program manager, Apollo Command/Service Module Program, North American-Rockwell from 1964 to 1969. After leaving NASA in 1989, Myers returned to private industry. See "Myers, Dale D.," NASA Deputy Administrator Files, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

N

Jason John Nassau (1893-1965) earned a Ph.D. from Syracuse in 1920 and became an assistant professor of astronomy at Case Institute of Technology in 1921. He continued to teach there, serving as chairman of the graduate division from 1936-1940, and became the director of the Warner and Swasey Observatory from 1924- 1959. Thereafter he was a professor emeritus at Case.

John Naugle (1923 -  ) was trained as a physicist at the University of Minnesota.  He began his career studying cosmic rays by launching balloons to high altitudes. In 1959 he joined NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, where he developed projects to study the magnetosphere. In 1960 he was named manager of NASA's Fields and Particles research program. He later served as NASA's associate administrator for the Office of Space Science and as the agency's chief scientist before his retirement in 1981. See John E. Naugle, First Among Equals: The Selection of NASA Space Science Experiments Washington, DC: NASA SP-4215, 1991.

Mitrofan Ivanovich Nedelin (1902-1960) was Deputy Minister of Defense from 1955-1959 and was the first Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Missile Forces.  Nedelin died in the R-16 accident.  (Provided by Asif Siddiqi)

Richard G. Neustadt (1919- ) was a Harvard University-trained political scientist who made a career in public policy analysis. He served for a time, 1946-1953, with the Federal Government in Washington, and thereafter in academe at Columbia University (1954-1964) and Harvard University, since 1964. He was an informal advisor to presidents and their associates between the 1940s and the 1980s. See Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest R. May, Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers (New York: Free Press, 1986).

Homer E. Newell (1915-1983) earned his Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Wisconsin in 1940 and served as a theoretical physicist and mathematician at the Naval Research Laboratory from 1944-1958.  During part of that period, he was science program coordinator for Project Vanguard and was acting superintendent of the atmosphere and astrophysics division.  In 1958 he transferred to NASA to assume responsibility for planning and development of the new agency's space science program.  He soon became deputy director of space flight programs.  In 1961 he assumed directorship of the office of space sciences; in 1963, he became associate administrator for space science and applications.  Over the course of his career, he became an internationally known authority in the field of atmospheric and space sciences as well as the author of numerous scientific articles and seven books, including Beyond the Atmosphere: Early Years of Space Science (Washington, DC: NASA SP-4211, 1980).  He retired from NASA at the end of 1973.  "Newell  General,” Deputy Administrator file 4493, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Gordon Allen Newkirk, Jr. (1928-1985) earned his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, with a concentration in astrophysics.  He began his career at Upper Air Research Observatory in 1953.  In 1955 he joined the senior research staff of the High Altitude Observatory.  He remained there for three decades and, concurrently, from 1961 to 1965,  was an adjunct professor of the department of Astrogeophysics at the University of Colorado.  From 1965 to 1976—by this time he had become director of the High Altitude Observatory—he  taught physics and astrophysics.  See “Newkirk, Gordon Allen, Jr.” in Who’s Who in America, 9th Ed. New Providence, NJ:  Marquis Who’s Who.

Frank Clarke Newlon (1905- ) had been city editor and then managing editor for the DallasDispatch-Journal_ and then managing editor of the National Education Association Service in Cleveland. Following military service during World War II and a subsequent career in the Air Force, he became editor of _Missiles and Rockets Magazine_ from 1958-1961. Thereafter, he became a free-lance writer.

Isaac Newton (1642-1727) created a scientific explanation of the workings of the university that held sway until the twentieth century. Based on the concept of gravity and three laws of motion that related to it, the Newtonian construct placed astronomy and physics on a firm mathematical foundation. Born in England, Newton was educated at Trinity College in Cambridge. As a relatively young man, by 1667 he had developed his ideas on universal gravitation and its consequences, the nature of white light, and the calculus. In the same year he was elected a fellow of Trinity College and two years later succeeded to the chair of his mentor Isaac Barrow. In 1696 Newton was named warden of the Mint and in 1699 he became its master. While still officially associated with Cambridge, his work at the mint effectively ended Newton's academic career. (James R. Newman, ed., The World of Mathematics [New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956], pp. 256-78; Lloyd Motz and Jefferson Hane Weaver, The Story of Physics [New York: Avon Books, 1992].)

Oran Nicks (1925-1998) was the Deputy Director of NASA’s Langley Research Center from 1970 to 1980.  Prior to this position, he was the Deputy Associate Administrator of the Office of Space Science and Applications from 1968 to 1970 and the Associate Administrator of the Office of Advanced Research and Technology  in 1970.  He was also the Director of Lunar and Planetary Programs from 1961 to 1968.  Upon retiring from NASA, Mr. Nicks was the director of the Space Research Center at Texas A&M from 1985 until his death.  (“Oran, Nicks” biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.)

Kenneth D. Nichols (1907 -   ) worked on the Manhattan Project in World War II and served in a variety of special weapons activities with the Department of Defense. In the early 1950s he was involved in directing the guided missile research and development effort for the Secretary of Defense. He also held posts with the Atomic Energy Commission and with industry.

M. H. Nichols  was on the Rocket and Satellite Research Panel in 1957 and worked at Palmer Physical Laboratory at Princeton University.  See “M. H. Nichols” at http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4211/appen-b.htm.

Arnauld Nicogossian earned an M.S. degree in aerospace medicine from Ohio State University, a M.D. from Teheran University, and trained in internal medicine at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York.  Dr. Nicogossian started at NASA in 1972 at the Johnson Space Center where he conducted biomedical research and was the crew surgeon for the Apollo Soyuz Test Project.  He came to Headquarters in 1976 and subsequently established an operational medicine and space medicine research program for the Space Shuttle and Space Station era programs.  He also served as chief health and medical officer.  In 1993, Dr. Nicogossian became deputy associate administrator for space flight activities, life and microgravity sciences and applications, and later became associate administrator for life and microgravity sciences.  Dr. Nicogossian also served as a senior advisor to NASA Administrator O’Keefe before retiring in January 2003.  See “Nicogossian, Arnauld E. T.” biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Paul H. Nitze (1907 -   ) had been with the investment firm of Dillon, Read, and Co., before World War II, and then entered federal service. He held a variety of posts, including director of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, 1944-1946, and served with the State Department during the remainder of the Truman administration. Between 1953 and 1961 he was president of the Foreign Service Educational Foundation. He was assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, 1961-1963; secretary of the Navy, 1963-1967; and deputy secretary of defense, 1967- 1969.

Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994) was President of the United States when the first man landed on the moon, serving between January 1969 and August 1974.  Early in his presidency, Nixon appointed a Space Task Group under the direction of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew to assess the future of spaceflight in the nation.  Its report recommended a vigorous post-Apollo exploration program culminating in a human expedition to Mars.  Nixon did not approve this plan, but did decide in favor of building one element of it, the Space Shuttle, which was approved on January 5, 1972.  See Roger D. Launius, "NASA and the Decision to Build the Space Shuttle, 1969-72," The Historian 57 (Autumn 1994): 17-34.

Warren J. North (1922 -   ) earned a B.S. from the University of Illinois in 1947. From then until 1955 he was an engineer and test pilot for the Lewis Laboratory. From 1956-1959 he served as assistant chief of the aerodynamics branch at Lewis. He then transferred to NASA Headquarters, where he took part in early planning for Project Mercury, including the selection and training of the seven Mercury astronauts. He moved in 1962 to the Manned Spacecraft Center (later the Johnson Space Center), where he headed the division responsible for training the astronauts for the Gemini rendezvous and docking operations and the Apollo lunar landings. He continued to work in the fields of astronaut selection and training until he retired in 1985 as special assistant to the director of flight operations in planning space shuttle crew training. ("Warren North," biographical file 001608, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.)

Herman Noordung (1892-1929) was a pseudonym for Herman Potocnik. He was a relatively obscure officer in the Austrian army who became an engineer. Encouraged by Hermann Oberth, he wrote an early seminal book called The Problem of Space Travel: The Rocket Motor that largley focused on the engineering aspects of space stations. See Hermann Noordung, edited by Ernst Stuhlinger and J.D. Hunley with Jennifer Garland, The Problem of Space Travel: The Rocket Motor (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, NASA SP-4026, 1995).

Robert Wilson Noyes (1934 -   ) received his B.A. from Haverford College (1957), and his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1963.  A prominent figure in the science community, his concentrations are solar and stellar physics.  He began his current career as a physicist for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in 1962.  Concurrently he was a lecturer of astronomy at Harvard University from 1962 until 1973, and associate director for the Center for Astrophysics from 1973 until 1980.  He participated in the National Academy of Sciences  “Solar Physics Study.” His professional memberships include:  the American Astronomical Society and the International Astronomical Union.  See “Noyes, Robert Wilson” in American Men and Women of Science, 1998-99, 20th Ed. New Providence, NJ:  R. R. Bower, 1998.

Robert G. Nunn, Jr. (1917-1975) earned a law degree from the University of Chicago in 1942. After four years in the Army during World War II, then private practice of law for eight years in Washington, D.C., and in his home town of Terre Haute, Indiana, he joined the office of general counsel of the Air Force in 1954. He became NASA assistant general counsel in November 1958 and then special assistant to T. Keith Glennan in September 1960. He helped draft many legal and administrative regulations for NASA, then went to work for the Washington law firm of Sharp and Bogan. Later he formed the firm of Batzell and Nunn, specializing in energy legislation and administrative law. See ìNunn, R.G., Jr.,î Biographical File, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Updated August 3, 2007
Steven J. Dick, NASA Chief Historian
Steve Garber, NASA History Web Curator
For further information E-mail histinfo@hq.nasa.gov